Thirty-one years after his death at the age of 33 after a heavy drinking session in London, members of AC/DC still count Bon Scott as a member of the band.

Speaking about the death of his late friend in an interview with USA Today, singer Brian Johnson described Scott’s death as ‘unlucky’.

He added, “I think he embodied everything that was fun, everything that was like ‘never say die, live life to the full.’ He had a terrible thing happen to him when he passed on.”

“He wasn’t a wild, wild, wild man – he was just as wild as the other boys were. He was just unlucky. We’ve all done stupid, dumb things when we were young, but we got away with it. He didn’t.”

Johnson replaced Scott in the band upon the latter’s death, with the blessing of Scott’s family. Johnson continued, saying, “It was just one of them stupid things that shouldn’t have happened, and it was accidental and it was stupid. And I just won’t have a bad word said against him. We still talk about him like he’s a member of the band in the dressing room.”

Johnson also reminisced about how he and Scott first crossed paths, when the two shared the same stage in pre-AC/DC bands; Johnson headlining with Geordie and Scott in the support act.

He says, “He was up on stage singing, and we met and had a couple of beers. He watched us play, and God bless his cotton socks again, when he did join AC/DC he was talking to the boys and he did say something to the effect that the only rock singer that he’d seen that was worth a damn was me, which was really nice of him, and the boys never forgot that.”

Johnson is plugging his autobiography, Rockers and Rollers: A Full-Throttle Memoir.